Luke Nguyen's Green Tomato Salad

In an amazing and colourful episode of Luke Nguyen's Greater Mekong on SBS recently, Luke visited Inle Lake in the Shan State of Myanmar, where entire villages and kilometres of tomato farms float upon the lake.

Floating vegetable gardens in Myanmar, image courtesy Syeefa Jay

Row upon row of tomatoes are grown like 'just like in a vineyard' across some 7,000 acres. The lake water assists in irrigation and the tomatoes are floated en masse to a local wholesale market nearby.

In episode six of Greater Mekong, Luke helped to cart (and lug) sacks of tomatoes to the wholesale market and then created the local speciality, a simple green tomato salad, which immediately sparked my interest. I have been given Luke's kind blessing to share my interpretation of the recipe with you. Thanks, Luke. You are a legend!

Green tomatoes are abundant in gardens across Australia at this time of the year. It's the tail end of the growing season and, without ongoing sunshine and warm Summer days, tomatoes simply don't have the opportunity to ripen. But, what to do with them that doesn't involve composting? How about coating slices of them in flour and spices and frying them, Southern style? Nice, but no thanks. Or use them in a CWA-style green tomato chutney or jam? Not for my Peter's taste buds, I'm afraid.

'Don't shy away from using green tomatoes, they are absolutely fantastic,' Luke says. Green tomatoes have a sweet, tangy flavour and 'really crunchy' texture. According to Luke, this makes them perfect for this salad, and he says they are also great to barbecue or grill.

Before I launch into the recipe, a word of advice from chef Luke: 'Hey Bizzy Lizzy, put a little less dried chili in the green tomato salad if you find it too spicy. The Burmese like it extra hot!'!

Finely slice the shallots and soak them in a bowl of water for ten minutes, then drain them (this will mellow the strong flavour). Grind the black sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle. Lightly toast the peanuts. Make the garlic oil, see below.

Cut the tomatoes in half and cut them into thin slices and place them into a bowl. Add the shallots, coriander, ground black sesame seeds, toasted peanuts, chilli flakes, garlic oil and salt. Mix well. Garnish with the fried garlic, sliced red chilli and extra coriander to serve. This quantity serves 4-6.

* To make a small amount of garlic oil, simply heat a few tablespoons of peanut or vegetable oil in a wok. Toss in two or three finely chopped cloves of garlic and cook until the garlic is golden. Strain and reserve the oil. The fried garlic can be used as a garnish. See Mark Jensen's recipe here.

^ Don't toast the sesame seeds, as they will become bitter.

This salad tastes superb, we really loved it. I served it with thinly sliced eye fillet of beef, wok tossed in peanut oil with a little garlic. I kept the beef plain, as I wanted the flavours in the salad to shine through. And so they did!

What's your favourite Asian salad? And have you enjoyed a meal at The Red Lantern restaurant?

And an Autumn Garden Update

We are well into Autumn (Fall) in Canberra now and the mornings have that wonderful crispness to them, followed by warm and sunny afternoons. Perfect for the kitchen garden, as some of our larger tomatoes have managed to ripen. The strawberries are all but finished, after providing us with a bountiful supply of sweet fruit all season. Similarly, the tomatoes are drawing to an end and I have pulled up most of the self-sown cherry and grape tomatoes, which not only sprung up from nowhere, but kept us supplied with fresh tomatoes in a range of sizes all Summer. The broccolini is now flourishing and we have already harvested the first of it. The womboks are also doing well. Our main enemies here have been snails and cabbage moths. The chillies are abundant and we are starting to freeze them. The self sown pumpkin is beginning to flower. And the celery is growing well. This will be put to good use in soups and stews. The little Romeo ball-like carrots have all been harvested and it's time to plant more. And the two newly planted fig trees in wine barrels are settling in nicely. Life in the kitchen garden is good!

How's your kitchen garden coming along? What have you planted this season? And what are you most looking forward to harvesting?

That salad looks soooo delicious. Once my tomatoes slow down production I am going to give this a go. I have just planted out seeds of carrots, spinach, lettuce, leeks, onions, garlic, peas, and rocket.My eggplant capsicum & tomatoes are still flourishing at the moment, I can't wait to have a huge crop of rocket. I adore it with Parmesan.

Lizzy

6/4/2012 11:37:14 pm

Krystie, that sounds fantastic. You must be in a warmer place than where I am? We are in for a really cold night tonight, perhaps a frost is coming. Rocket is good with Parmesan. Do give Luke's salad a try and let me know if you like it! Thanks for visiting ; )

Gorgeous post and one of the most novel and appealing salads I have come across in a very long time! What is in the bottom right of the photo of ingredients on the green background? Looks like baby pears? Or is it shallots? I imagine this would be very tasty - but still cannot really imagine the flavours. Also very interesting that there is no dressing!
:)
V

Lizzy

7/4/2012 08:39:13 am

Hello Valerie, yes, shallots. This is a wonderful salad. As I mentioned, it caught my eye when I watched the episode and I really do want to make nice things with my green tomatoes. The dressing comprises a little garlic oil and the flavours of the coriander, sesame, salt and chilli, in particular, come through. Give it a try at the end of your summer.

I was lucky enough to eat twice at Red Lantern last year, and it's definitely up there with my favourite places to eat. The squid... oh the squid!!!
I didn't see this episode but this recipe looks delicious. Textures, colour and taste. Yum!

Lizzy

7/4/2012 02:43:47 pm

I ate at Red Lantern too earlier this year and the food was exquisite. Cannot wait to go back. I agree, the squid was superb. Try the salad, it's a winner!

Your images are always beautiful! I made green tomato chutney last year and it was delicious, we were very sad when we came to the last jar.

Lizzy

10/4/2012 07:59:37 am

Why thank you! That is very kind. Are you going to make more chutney this year?

InTolerant Chef

10/4/2012 06:54:16 pm

Oh the salad and the garden both look so lovely Lizzy!
I've cleaned out my old summer garden beds and have started planting out my winter ones now. I've got a bit of everything in there, whatever I can fit! I also have a heap of things sprouting inside for cosseting over winter- ginger, tumeric, basil and garlic as well.

Lizzy

10/4/2012 08:44:57 pm

Hi there lovely! Thank you... Isn't it a good feeling to have the beds ready for winter planting. New things are promised with the changing of the seasons!

Lovely salad Lizzy, such a great idea to use those beautiful green tomatoes. Your garden sounds wonderful, have you planted dwarf figs or normal size ones?

Lizzy

13/4/2012 09:53:54 am

Good morning! Thank you... do try this recipe if you like Asian flavours. It is lovely. No, we have dwarf citrus, that we bought last weekend. But the figs are normal size. Will see how they go in the wine barrels. Fingers crossed!

Lovely post, Lizzy. I watched this episode and the green tomato salad recipe took me right back to Myanmar where we had some fabulous salads, including pickled tea salad - http://bit.ly/yMx38I. Your photos are fab, and you're right this is a great way to use up the tail end of summer's tomatoes. Thanks for sharing and for prompting me to do a runaround in the garden looking for tomato stragglers!

Lizzy

13/4/2012 11:27:01 pm

Hey there Rachel! It was a great episode, wasn't it! I am envious of your travels... you have inspired me and we have a bucket list of places we would like to visit. Glad to hear that you have access to some green tomatoes, please do let me know if you end up making this one. xoxo

The salad looks so good. I will have to try it this spring. We treasure green tomatoes in Southern USA. The first tomatoes of the season are always enjoyed green. Your garden makes me want to get started, but we will have to wait about another month.

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​Cooking and writing have been a lifelong passion.​Join me as I share with you my favourite recipes; postcards and morsels from my travels; conversations with cookery writersand chefs; and news on food, cookbooks ​and cooking.​- Liz Posmyk